There is a particular kind of person a small production team cannot function without. Not the loudest voice in the room, not the one with a single defining specialty, but the one who understands every stage of the process and shows up for all of them. At Lumiere Shades, that person is Desak.
Desak cuts the fabric. She cuts the rattan. She prepares the linen before it ever meets a frame, works the finishing, and when the fringing needs doing. Strand by strand, by hand, it is often Desak who does it. She is also the one who looks at each handmade linen pendant shade before it leaves Bali and decides whether it is ready. In a workshop where every piece is made to order and ships somewhere in the world, that final set of eyes matters enormously. Desak has been those eyes for several years now.
What makes her story a little different is that she came to this work not through a craft tradition, but through her own initiative. When she and Lumiere first crossed paths, she was running a small store near her home, managing her own inventory, her own hours, her own livelihood. As orders for our handcrafted lighting grew and the rhythm of production deepened, she stepped gradually into the workshop, taking on more, learning more, becoming indispensable in the way that only consistent, careful people do.
Her husband manages the production team. So in many ways, the workshop is a family undertaking, not in the nostalgic, abstract sense, but in the entirely practical one. They are both here. They both understand what it takes.
And then there are her two children, young enough that proximity still matters. Working close to home means Desak is never far if she is needed. The children know where she is. That steadiness for them and in her work seems to come from the same place.
When you're preparing fabric before it goes onto the frame, what are you looking for?
The fabric has to be right before anything else can be right. I'm checking the cut, checking the grain, making sure there's nothing that will show once the linen pendant shade is finished. If something is slightly off at this stage, it becomes a problem later. It's easier to fix before than after.
The fringing, can you describe what that involves?
It's slow work. Each strand is done individually, by hand. You have to be patient with it. If you rush, it shows. The fringe is part of the character of the shade it has to fall correctly, feel consistent. I find it meditative, actually. Your hands know what they're doing and your mind can settle.
And the quality check at the end what does that feel like?
It's the most important moment. Everything that happened before leads to this. I'm looking at the shade as a whole. The shape, the surface, the finish, the fringe, the way the linen sits on the rattan frame. I'm also looking at it the way someone in their home might. Would I be happy if this handmade linen pendant light arrived at my house? That's the question I'm always asking.
You came to this from running your own business. Does that background show up in how you work?
Yes, I think so. When you run your own business, even a small one, you understand the whole picture. Nothing is someone else's problem. That's how I approach the workshop too. If I see something that isn't right, I don't walk past it.
What does a good day look like here?
A good day is when the shades leave and I know they're exactly as they should be. When the cutting was clean, the finishing was right, the fringing is even. Some days everything comes together without difficulty. Those are good days.
What do you hope someone feels when they unwrap a Lumiere shade?
I hope they feel it was made with care. That someone thought about it. The linen, the fringe, the way it's finished, all of that takes time. I hope when they hold a handcrafted linen pendant shade in their hands, that comes through.